Are you looking at another sixteen hour — or longer — work day? Do you ever get a weekend off? Have you stopped meeting friends and family for lunches, dinners or other get-togethers? Are you working on or in your business? If you’re being run ragged by all you have to do — you are working IN your business and you need to find a way to step back, get out of the overwhelm and get back to a work-life balance?

Are You Working ON or IN Your Business?

Here are some ways to tell whether you are runnign your business or if it’s running you:

You answer the question, “How are you?” with “Busy!”

You can’t remember the last time you were home in time for family dinner.

You feel it will be quicker for you to “just do it yourself” rather than hire someone or delegate a task.

You tell yourself, “I need to make more money” or “I need more clients” but you’re not even sure if that’s true.

You are reactive to the tasks of the day rather than being proactive.

What can you do to take control and regain your life? Here are a few.

Put together systems and business processes for your daily tasks.

Take time off for yourself and your family. Make your business work around your schedule instead of the other way around.

Delegate. Hire someone to do those tasks that don’t truly need your input.

Understand your budget so you can determine whether you can say “no” to a new project when you’re drowning with the ones you currently have.

Find a coach, mastermind group or a mentor. An outsider’s perspective might be just waht you need.

If you’re looking at your day with dread, you need to reach out and find someone with whom to interact and who can help you learn to work ON rather than IN your business. Is today the day you’re going to take that step and regain your life? Give me a call, if you said “yes!”

Have you ever wondered how to become a better public speaker? Do you go to networking events and listen to colleagues regale the audience with stories and share their unique knowledge and wondered, “how can I do that?” Public speaking is a matter of knowing your stuff and understanding how to deliver it to an audience in a concise manner while making it both entertaining and useful.

How To Become A Better Public Speaker

Practice. Don’t imagine that the great orators of our time simply took to the podium and were stellar speakers. Sure, some of them might be able to deliver a moving speech or lead a networking event with no preparation, but for the rest of us mortals, we need to practice. Write your speech then read it through several times a day before you deliver it. Read snippets of it aloud. Stand in front of a mirror and read it. Once you’re comfortable with the content, then deliver it without reading. Notice how the best speakers rarely resort to reading notes.

Change your mindset from one of fear to one of knowledge and power. YOU are helping your audience and that is empowering. Focus on your experience and unique expertise.

Welcome everyone to your session. Walk around the front of the room, make eye contact, offer up a “good morning” or a “good afternoon.” This relaxes both you and the group. Make a connection with the audience.

If you’re anxious and have sweaty palms, take some deep breaths. Get up and move. Don’t sit in a chair and let anxiety take over. Move around and walk it out.

Businesses are downsizing and many “older” employees are finding their positions cut to make way for younger (usually with lower paychecks) staff members. There is a boom movement in Baby Boomers becoming entrepreneurs — and why not! Sixty is the new fifty and if you want to know how to join the Baby Boomer Entrepreneur crowd, read on for tips to do just that.

Grab your pen and paper and make notes of the unique areas of expertise you bring to the table and how you might be able to parlay those talents or other talents you may have never had time to pursue into a new career as a business owner.

How To Join The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur Crowd

Delve into your passions. If you had a job that you loved, find a way to continue pursuing that as an entrepreneur. If you have a passion you never had time to follow because you were working, find a way to make that generate income. What do you love? What will people pay for? How can you marry the two? Search your soul for those things at which you excel; write them all down and see if any of those items are something you could see as a business endeavor.

Put together a business plan. Whether unemployment is looming or if you are already retired. Put your plan in writing. Have a business goal, or more than one. Know what you need to spend for start up costs. Know what you need to make in order to consider the business a success. If you put your thoughts in writing you are more likely to follow through.

What skills do you need to brush up on? If you aren’t as technical as you should be, take a class. Look at your potential business ideas and know what skills you need to hone. If you are starting a business you will also want to build a team of at least an attorney (to have on call for contracts and other legal advice and to assure you’re setting the business up correctly) and a financial person — bookkeeper, accountant, etc. — to assure you’re setting up your accounts correctly and are staying in good standing with the IRS. You need to know what skills you need to hire for and what skills you want to learn.

If you’ve never been self-employed, this could be a worrisome time, but I urge you to embrace this new challenge and let it bring you joy! Do you wonder whether you have an idea that could warrant a business? If you’re unsure of where to even begin, drop us a comment and let’s set up a time to talk!

Tips To Bring Your Next Presentation To Life because if you’re in front of a group of potential clients at a networking meeting you want to not only teach them valuable implementable tips, but you want to entertain! How can you make your next presentation memorable? Hint: Remember, it’s not all about you — even if your’e the one imparting the information!

Tips To Bring Your Next Presentation To Life

Be enthusiastic. Whether you’re a pool service pro, a septic tank cleaner or a Fortune 500 CEO you need to be enthusiastic about your subject and find a way to bring even the driest of subjects to life. Bring props if they help support your topic and if they are interesting. Don’t stare at a screen and read word for word from your slides. If you’re doing that, you may as well hand the slides to the attendees and let them read at their leisure.

Mine your memories for information that only you know about your subject matter. Remember, you’re the speaker and that means you will be seen as the expert. Go beyond the superficial and give the audience something to truly think about. Look for intriguing angles on a subject about which “everyone” may know.

Ditch the jargon. Believe me, you will not impress your audience if you use “industry speak” and pepper your talk with acronyms. Speak plainly. In this instance, industry speak and acronyms will not make you look like an expert, it will make you look like a show-off. If your audiences’ eys are glazing over every time you toss out an industry specific term, you need to get back to basics and keep your speech simple and relatable.

Move around the room. It is comfortable for most people to stand in one place and stand behind a podium. I urge you to get out, walk around, make eye contact with the audience. Don’t read from your speech — practice before you attend the meeting so you can speak more naturally.

Know how you operate. What works for one speaker will not work for another. You’ve been to events where the speaker focused solely on slides, others that used no visuals and others that had a combination of the two. Know what makes you most comfortable in sharing your expertise and embrace that as your speaking style. If you’re not a “funny guy” don’t attempt humor. Avoid potentially inflammatory comments. Keep to the topic about which you are speaking.

Leave time for questions, but don’t be worried if your request of, “Does anyone have any questions?” is met with crickets. Many people won’t speak up in the group setting. If no one has a question, make certain you extend the invitation to, “Reach out to me any time if you do have questions.”

Remember, the speech is about the audience. Give them something they can take back to their office and potentially implement. Regardless of your career path, if you’re speaking on a particular subject and if you have an audience, they are there to learn. Give them knowledge.

What do you do to prepare for a speech? How do you deliver your expertise? Are you looking for more speaking engagements? What are you doing to make that a reality?